Rudd-O.com: the latest twentyhttps://rudd-o.com
This is the front page of Rudd-O.com. Welcome, and enjoy!

On poverty and inequalityhttps://rudd-o.com/archives/on-poverty-and-inequality

People often talk about "the causes of poverty" (or hunger, or destitution...). Any conversation that purports to figure out what those are, is wrong from the very beginning down to its basic, most fundamental premise.

Poverty is not "caused by" anything. Poverty is the default state of Mankind. It is literally the word we use to describe a socioeconomic state of affairs — hunger, destitution, lack of resources — brought about precisely by doing nothing to avoid that state. To sum it up: poverty is what happens to you, when you fail to do anything productive.

In that — and only — sense, the "cause" of poverty, is lack of productive action.

Therefore — if we are to argue that poverty needs "curing" — the cure for poverty is to be productive. Productivity — providing value to others in exchange for value — is the only legitimate way to fix poverty.

To be certain: there are other accidental circumstances in which a person may find themselves temporarily poorerthan before — bankruptcy, natural disasters, calamity — but even in all these exceptional cases, the cure for that temporary poverty remains to be productive.

Many folks also like to discuss inequality as if it was a great evil or a calamitous tragedy. These folks commit the same error above, with respect to the concept of equality.

Inequality is not "an evil", and it is also "not caused" by anything. Inequality is simply the result of some people being more productive than others. This, in turn, is the effect of pre-existing differences between people's capacities to be productive.

In that — and only — sense, the "cause" of inequality, is some people engaging in productive action at a faster rate than others.

Therefore — if we are to argue that inequality needs "curing" — the cure for inequality is to get everyone to be more productive.

Anyone trying to convince you that better productivity is evil, is necessarily wrong, from the most basic concepts. Anyone telling you that productive folks are to blame for the evils of poverty and inequality, is not just wrong, but also full of hate for success. Do not let them lie to you.

Libertarians, even those who don’t have a detailed knowledge of economics, generally appreciate that wealth has to be created for people not to be poor, and out of a basic sense of fairness (if not a deep-seated respect for property rights) it follows that those who create wealth are entitled to keep it. The wealth they create is theirs, and they don’t owe anyone anything. For this reason, libertarians are often maligned as “greedy” or “selfish”, but this is merely the embittered accusation of the envious. How is it greedy or selfish to say I should get to keep what I earn and how is it not greedy or selfish to claim entitlement to someone else’s stuff?

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No publisherpovertyeconomicshuman actionequality2018-12-31T02:35:00ZNews ItemFundamentals of self-defense against manipulationhttps://rudd-o.com/archives/fundamentals-of-self-defense-against-manipulation
This video is excellent. Yes, it's long. But these are basics of philosophy and social interaction that you will benefit from knowing.

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No publisherphilosophytutorialssophistry2018-12-06T13:46:34ZNews Item"Carbon tax"https://rudd-o.com/archives/carbon-tax
A tax on mere existence.

— Me: So people will eat less and not heat/cool their homes? Also, they won't use their cars like they do every day?

— Him: You just don't understand. eyeroll

— Me: I understand perfectly well. It's another tax to feed the maw of the government that won't do a fucking thing to the environment. It will just make people live poorer lives, take more money out of everyone's pockets, and reduce the amount that they save. It will also give more money and power to the government. And since the biggest carbon emitters (China, India, etc) won't reduce their carbon output, the tax will do exactly zero to "save the planet".

— Him: It's science! You don't understand science!

— Me: I prefer not to argue with zealot cultists. Goodbye.

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No publisherscienceenvironmentalismclimate panicliespathological beliefs2018-11-29T08:28:00ZNews ItemShell snippets: sum file sizeshttps://rudd-o.com/linux-and-free-software/shell-snippets-apparent-disk-space-of-files
Quick one-liner to add up the (apparent) disk space taken up by files.

The following sample adds up the disk space of image files in the current directory and below, and shows it onscreen, in gibibytes.

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No publishersnippetstipssystem administration2018-11-18T12:54:09ZNews ItemEverything you've always wanted to know about sex differences but were afraid to askhttps://rudd-o.com/archives/everything-youve-always-wanted-to-know-about-sex-differences-but-were-afraid-to-ask/index
A very condensed summary of the scientific literature on sex differences.

"Everyone knows that men and women are different… except social scientists." –Unknown

Before we get started, a caution: It's easy to misunderstand claims about sex differences. The screenshot below explains what scientists mean – and don't mean – when they say that, on average, men are more X than women (or vice versa — see page 268 of The ape that kicked the hornet's nest for more on the subject).

Age trends: Sex differences are often larger among teens and young adults than among other age groups. This applies, for instance, to sex differences in alcohol consumption, fireworks-related hospitalizations, cycling fatalities, and homicide rates.

For many traits, males are more variable than females: The male distribution is slightly flatter and stretches out somewhat further on both sides of the mean. See Men, Women and Science as well as this Twitter thread.

Are sex differences such as those above a product of nurture alone? Or is there also an innate contribution? Various lines of evidence suggest the latter.

First, many of these differences appear across cultures. From The Ape that Understood the Universe:

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No publishersexbiologysocietyhumanity2018-11-15T18:34:00ZNews ItemSkin in the game: Europa editionhttps://rudd-o.com/archives/skin-in-the-game-europa-edition
Your rulers have no reason to care about your loved ones' futures, because they have no reason to care about theirs.

Noteworthy fact: Most European leaders, including the four strongest countries', have no kids of their own.

This state of affairs — ruling while not having a family — would have been inconceivable just 40 years ago.

Q: How can rulers make the right choices for a nation, if they themselves don't have to worry about the consequences of those decisions for their own children?

A: They can't. This concept, of bearing personal responsibility by being exposed to the consequences of one's talk and deeds, is what Nassim Taleb calls no skin in the game.

These people have no skin in the game. But they are happy to gamble your and your kids' skins in their game.

Think about it, the next time you vote. It may be the last.

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No publisherNassim Talebskin in the gameEuropepolitics2018-11-14T23:48:00ZNews ItemMoney is a formal token of delayed reciprocal altruismhttps://rudd-o.com/archives/money-is-a-formal-token-of-delayed-reciprocal-altruism
The cornerstone of civilization, in a sentence.

Money is a formal token of delayed reciprocal altruism; a famous statement by Richard Dawkins.

What does that mean?

Simple. When you get paid, that's gratitude you are receiving. When you pay, that's gratitude you're expressing.

Before money, people stored debts of gratitude in their heads, and used cumbersome barter to pay or collect those debts. After money, that inevitable fact of human life got greatly streamlined and sped up.

This conceptualization of money is the cornerstone of civilization. If you don't understand money as the above, you are going to have a very, very difficult time being successful in the world today.

If there's any error -- and making errors is easy -- such as "oh, your client's GSS proxy cache is out of date, because you updated your server krb5.keytab, but the client's rpc.gssd keeps retrying with the old KVNO keytab entry", there's absolutely nothing that will help you figure this out, unless you toggle some very arcane command-line flags in some absurd shell config files. Tweak the wrong setting (and there's many to tweak), and suddenly other parts of the stack may begin to fail, often in other machines.

To complicate matters even further: at least in Fedora, you need to add several SELinux AVC audit2allow rules, because the daemons flat out don't work with SELinux enabled (gssproxy and rpc.gssd get denials trying to access D-BUS, and so does the kernel upcall interface). And how does this manifest? The mounts just hang for 30 seconds when listing them, but only randomly.

The documentation available online is poor, inconsistent, or flat out wrong. There's no actual tutorial explaining concepts and step-by-step instructions with rationales. To top it all of, no one actually explains in their shit "tutorials" that every user must be authenticated on a client machine -- and therefore must have a corresponding principal on the Kerberos KDC server -- for an NFS mount to actually show anything.

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No publisherNFSKerberosdisaster2018-11-08T04:48:34ZNews ItemThe difference between a libertarian and an authoritarianhttps://rudd-o.com/archives/the-difference-between-a-libertarian-and-an-authoritarian
It's one of mindset.

If a libertarian doesn't like guns, he doesn't buy one.If an authoritarian doesn't like guns, he wants all guns banned.

If a libertarian is a vegetarian, he doesn't eat meat.If an authoritarian is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned.

If a libertarian is down and out, he thinks about how to better his situation.If an authoritarian is down and out, he thinks about who's going to be forced to fix his situation.

If a libertarian doesn't like a YouTube channel, he unsubscribes.If an authoritarian doesn't like a YouTube channel, he reports the channel and tries to get it banned.

If a libertarian is non-religious a or non-believer, he doesn't go to church.If an authoritarian is non-religious or a non-believer, he wants churches and synagogues banned.

If a libertarian decides he needs health care, he finds out what his best options are.If an authoritarian decides he needs health care, he insists others be forced to pay for his consumption of it.

If a libertarian reads this, he'll probably post it on his social media with a chuckle.If an authoritarian reads this, he's probably going to comment angrily to say how dare you offend me by posting such things?

Be a libertarian, not an authoritarian.

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No publisherlibertarianismauthoritarianism2018-10-31T07:03:00ZNews ItemUnderstanding conceptshttps://rudd-o.com/archives/understanding-concepts
This was the first video posted on the Freedomain Radio channel. It remains as relevant today as it ever was.

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No publisherStefan Molyneux from Freedomain Radiophilosophy2018-10-31T06:21:52ZNews ItemPopular belief debunked: Hitler's speeches were mostly ineffectivehttps://rudd-o.com/archives/fake-history-debunked-hitlers-speeches-were-mostly-ineffective
This forgotten piece of history demonstrates we humans are very prone to invent false causes for historical incidents. It shows the importance of studying history properly.

This study challenges the commonly-accepted story that everything comes down to his skill as an orator and demagogue (and further reinforces the idea of campaigns in general not being very effective at changing minds).

Of course, this also raises the questions:

But then how did the Nazi Party get so much support so quickly?

Will the study replicate?

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No publisherNazismhistoryfake historydebunked2018-09-15T14:51:00ZNews ItemHow to keep your cool in an argumenthttps://rudd-o.com/archives/how-to-avoid-embarrassing-yourself-in-an-argument
Quick vid on how to catch common gotchas when arguing with someone else, and discover how to go past them.

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No publisherJordan Petersonargumentsphilosophyrhetoricdebatingpersonal developmentcharisma2018-08-11T05:09:00ZNews ItemOf wars and hood ornamentshttps://rudd-o.com/archives/of-wars-and-hood-ornaments
The war machine does not care who you elected president.

Looks like the U.S. about to start a war with Syria; the chatter on mass media (your propaganda firehose) is parroting the exact same it did, when the U.S. started the wars on Libya, Afghanistan, and Iraq (version 1 and version 2).

As you can see, the Deep State never rests.

A bit of car history:

Most cars before the 90's sported things called "hood ornaments". You probably don't remember any "hood ornament", because the U.S. government basically made them illegal around that time. But, before that happened, hood ornaments were everywhere. They were ornamental sculptures, often shaped like the logo of the car manufacturers, prominently displayed on the nose of their cars (at the time, vehicles of mastodon proportions). It served no purpose other than to look impressive, promote the manufacturer's interests... and open real wide gashes on people who didn't cross the road "properly". Importantly, the ornament does not control the vehicle. The driver controls the vehicle — the vehicle merely pushes the ornament into unlucky people's bodies.

Why am I talking about hood ornaments?

Because they served the exact same purpose that a president serves. The president is a hood ornament for the mastodon behind him, and the mastodon is being driven by someone else. That someone else is the Deep State. Sure, the president gives the order, but he only orders what the Deep State has been planning all along.

It is no exaggeration to say that many will die, as many did in the previous wars. While they die, many will angrily focus on the hood ornament of the U.S. government. Those people will be wrong, because the deaths will not be the fault of the hood ornament.

If you're still focused on the hood ornament, then let me tell you: please look both ways before crossing the street, because that's about the only useful advice I can give you.

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No publisherwarstatismonly in the U.S.A.2018-04-11T12:19:34ZNews ItemWeimar America is herehttps://rudd-o.com/archives/weimar-america
It's the ascent of the war between alt-left and alt-right. The alt-left control the flow of information and the right to speak, from academia to media to Silicon Valley. The alt-right reacts as they reactionary movement they always were. Sectarian violence is well underway. Where will this lead us? We look at the present, then back into history, in order to look ahead into our future.

Note: CopperheadOS has sadly become discontinued. I'm working on a recipe to build your own RattlesnakeOS (its successor) on-prem. Stay tuned!

I've published the recipe I use to build CopperheadOS — a fortified version of Android AOSP — to my Github account. This executable recipe gives you full secure boot support — so nobody will be able to tamper with your device unbeknownst to you — as well as anti-theft protection on your device (provided you have not turned off OEM unlock on your device).

It's time for you to enjoy it too!

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No publisherCopperheadOSAndroidfree softwarebuilds2017-07-31T11:37:00ZNews ItemAnnouncing qubes-passhttps://rudd-o.com/linux-and-free-software/announcing-qubes-pass
A secure, compartemented, open source solution for password management that leverages the power of Qubes OS.

Building on the excellent pass, it gives me great pleasure to announce the initial release of qubes-pass — an inter-VM password manager and store for Qubes OS. Check it out here!

The good news: as of today, I am officially stronger than I have ever been. I've more than doubled my strength in a mere 21 sessions, even overcoming a setback from my travel weeks in February.

Now, you may think "these numbers are all really modest, I'm not sure why he's so happy about" — and you might even be right. Nonetheless, for me, this is a truly remarkable accomplishment. It isn't just "an accomplishment" — it's really only the beginning. The trend lines don't lie.

Naturally, as you can see in the picture below, the situation isn't all roses and wine. I have been stuck at certain weights in some exercises. Failure to finish some sets (in orange and red) is very evident in this data set:

But, you see, failure isn't an excuse to stop trying. On the contrary — failure is literally how 5x5 is meant to be used: you add weight and keep trying and failing to lift it, until you succeed, then you add more weight.

Here's the most valuable lesson I drew from doing this: the only way to get to success, is by repeatedly failing until you succeed.

Thanks to 5x5, I am not afraid of failure anymore.

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No publishermeinsightshealthtips2017-03-25T22:32:00ZNews ItemOf contrast and devotionhttps://rudd-o.com/archives/of-contrast-and-devotion
Only devotion can ensure a relationship lasts through the rough times.

I just came out of the Limmat imaging center with some rough news.

The contrast MRI of my hip hurt quite a bit. The leg pain I'd been experiencing doing squats traces back directly to a defect — a lump — in the top surface of my right acetabulum. it's only why a particular movement hurts, but not others. if this situation remains the same, I will be looking at a labrum injury in a few years.

Walking with a cane is not good. Time to see an orthopedist.

The CT they did of my head was pain-free. I originally did it to ascertain whether the cosmetic surgery I wanted was possible — the surgery team needed to figure out if the bone behind my nose was symmetrical. Turns out, it is. Phew.

That said, the results of the CT suck. I have fluid in my sinuses, large polyps in my nasal passages, enlarged adenoids, and an extremely deviated septum. I guess this goes a long way towards explaining why I snore at night, and why I have pretty much forever woken up feeling so tired and befuddled — oxygen is a precious commodity.

Sometimes, "not being a morning person" has proper medical causes. Time to find an ENT guy, and then have him meet my plastic surgeon for a joint surgery planning session.

Finally, I still have another contrast MRI pending — an MRI of my brain. To figure out the cause of my severe hormonal imbalance, my pituitary gland must be checked. Since that tiny nutsack lies in the center of my brain, an MRI is the only way to go about checking it. I'm now crossing my fingers and wishing (in the immortal words of Arnie) that "it's not a tumah".

Like I said, rough news. Not quite "I'm going to die" — more like "I've coped with a low quality of life for a long time, and now I understand why."

However, this prospectus, and the physical pain, pale in comparison to the emotional pain I felt during the whole set of procedures.

See, today I painfully walked (limped) myself, pushing my bike for two kilometers, nary an hour after that painful contrast was shot into my hip.

I felt abandoned.

I walked into my marriage knowing that the most crucial part of our mutual oath was devotion to one another. From my side, I would be forever fulfilling my duty of protection and care for her. Thus, for the duration of my marriage, I was there for every single rough moment that my partner had (which I was aware of). I was there when she couldn't cope with food and pain. I was there when she was bleeding because of a drug reaction. I held her hand after her colonoscopy. I programmend her cellphone to assist her right after eye surgery, and when she needed me to give her pain meds, I was right there on the spot. I can't even count the times I was there for her, and I won't bore you with more examples anyway.

I did it all with the implicit understanding that, no matter how invulnerable I believed myself to be, some day I would have someone there to hold my hand and support me when I was sick — not in the quid pro quo sense, but rather with the tacit assumption that, when I needed her, I could lean on her. I mean, she proposed to me, she stood at the altar, she promised to care, honor, love and respect me in sickness and in health.

And then, when I was truly depressed and (unbeknownst to me) sick for months, what did actually happen? Well, long story short, that was exactly when she checked out... in the most hurtful and deceitful way.

Today's walk home showed me the value of making absolutely sure, before committing for a lifetime, that your partner understands what devotion is.

When there's devotion, your partner understands there's always light at the end of the tunnel, and this mutual understanding ensures that, once the darkness has passed, you and your partner will love again and enjoy the good times. Even if they don't love you right now, as you navigate your hard times, they get that they will love you again, with their support and care.

Without devotion — on both sides — difficult times will simply break the two of you apart; your partner will simply stray as soon as it is expedient, which is usually when you're weakened and in need of your partner the most. It won't matter if you are devoted yourself — if your partner isn't, you'll find yourself abandoned.

Only devotion can ensure a relationship lasts through the rough times.

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No publishermerelationshipstips2017-03-17T03:24:00ZNews ItemFitness workbench: for healthy geekshttps://rudd-o.com/linux-and-free-software/fitness-workbench-for-healthy-geeks
A Reinteract workbench to analyze your progress at the gym and with your nutrition.

I've created a Reinteract workbench that will help you analyze your body measurement and exercise data stored on your OpenOffice or LibreOffice spreadsheet.

It's quite nifty, actually. It produces nice graphs and computes a smooth trendline that instantly shows you how you're progressing.